630 karma · joined March 5, 2018
I think the idea of using technology to solve life's ultimate conundrums has long since jumped the shark and veered into the area of religious belief. People are literally putting their faith in AI even if they wouldn't use religious vocabulary to label and define it as such.
https://thecslewis-studygroup.org/the-c-s-lewis-study-group/...
Not challenging you. Maybe it’s just the phrasing. But that sentence to me reads as if they think the presence of the biases in GPT means that they exist in the real world. And again, not challenging that the biases do exist. Just noting the trend toward trusting GPT in increasingly subjective areas that have to do with moral judgement. To me it’s not too much different than drawing conclusions about the world from religious texts.
Not disputing the claims. But talking to GPT to get answers about the real world that have to do with value judgements is just weird. There’s a big difference between asking GPT to give you a recipe for a cake and asking GPT to help you understand the value the world places on different people.
I'm taking issue with the fact that he's presenting Google and its mission as something objective and above reproach. By doing so he's going above and beyond asking people to align themselves with Google's mission and methods and asking them to assent to something that he seems to take for granted as transcendent.
It's religious language and behavior and it creeps me out.
Sometimes I really wonder if there is a total lack of self awareness or if these things are phrased in obligatory ways because of legal concerns.
Maybe the nature of working for a company is that you need to align yourself with the company's mission and methods. But I can't see how objectivity is really in play here. Surely Sundar Pichal can see that he's just putting his own truth claims over those of the employees?
Why not just say that Google has a certain mission and methods and that if you're going to work at Google you need to get on board instead of phrasing in a way that makes it seem like Google is completely neutral or above reproach as an entity because of their alleged stature as objective and trusted?
And, to play devil's advocate a little: You can't make up a rule that doesn't exist. Either your CSS will work or it won't. And if it works it's not wrong.
I also approach writing CSS with the goal of writing as little as possible. Not because I don't like it - I tend to think it gets an unfairly bad rap - but because it teaches you how to more effectively style layouts without layering too many declarations.